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Current Cal Poly Wheelmen Looking for Alumni
Kevin Moynihan, the current president of the Wheelmen (Cal Poly's cycling team) is looking for all former Wheelmen. "We have lost contact with many of our own alumni, people who were heavily involved in the training of a winning nationals team, former officers and many more. I am trying my best to keep Alumni involved in Wheelmen events," Moynihan said. The Cal Poly Wheelmen want to hear from you if you were on the cycling team. To get back in touch, visit the Wheelmen Web site at www.cpslowheelmen.org and click on the alumni tab.
At left, a Wheelman alumnus cheers on the current team at a race. Previous years' team jerseys featured large, prominent dots. Some alum are calling for a return of the prominent dots to current team jerseys.
Photo courtesy Cal Poly Wheelmen.
Alumni in the News
Architecture Alumna Wins Coveted Rome Prize
Former Cal Poly architecture student Adriana Cuellar is heading to Rome this fall as one of 30 winners of the 109th annual Rome Prize Competition, sponsored by the American Academy in Rome. Cuellar won the prestigious award for her proposal to study the city's virtual and physical blind spots. She will spend 11 months in the Italian capital living and working with the other 2006-2007 winners at the American Academy 's 11-acre site on Rome 's highest hill. She's just one of the Cal Poly alumni in the news this month. Click the link below to see more, and see if you know them!
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University
News
For 14th Straight Year,
Cal Poly Is Best in the West in U.S. News Rankings
For the 14th year in a row, Cal Poly has been rated the best public-master's university in the West by U.S. News & World Report, in its 2007 America 's Best Colleges guidebook. Cal Poly ranked 7th in the magazine's overall list of the West's best universities, including both public and private institutions, that provide "a full range of undergraduate and master's-level programs but few, if any, doctoral programs." U.S. News ranks colleges that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, in a separate category.
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Cal Poly Receives $880,000 for Low-Income and First Generation Students
Cal Poly recently received an $880,000 grant to help middle/junior high and high school students from low-income and first-generation families pursue a college education. The grant from the U.S. Department of Education's TRIO Talent Search Program will fund Cal Poly's Educational Talent Search program through 2011.
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July CubeSat Launch Crash Cause Made Clearer
Cal Poly students and faculty are rebounding from the disappointing maiden CubeSat launch attempt in July at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In an update on the Dnepr failure from ISC Kosmotras, the Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire group, a malfunctioning hydraulic drive unit of a combustion chamber on the booster’s first stage has been identified as the cause of the July 26 crash shortly after launch. The CubeSat Project is an international collaboration of over 80 universities, high schools and private firms busily building the diminutive devices. The tiny, hold-in-the-palm-of-your-hand satellite is built to specifications developed by California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California and Stanford University’s Space Systems Development Laboratory.
Read the Space.com story
Cal Poly, Fresno, Chico Join to Bring Ag Irrigation into the Computer Age
Cal Poly is helping Chico State and Fresno State modernize campus agricultural irrigation, modeling high-tech improvements that can be adopted by California growers. At Chico State, Cal Poly's Irrigation Research and Training Center, along with Fresno State, aided the design and construction of a new supervisory control and data acquisition system -- SCADA for short -- at the University Farm. It's a bright room humming with computers; the computers connect to pumping stations in fields and control the amount of water released for irrigation and its flow.
Read more of the Sacramento Bee story
California Secretary of Agriculture
Speaks to Growers at Cal Poly
Ever munched a miracle? Chewed a cherimoya? Peeled a purple banana? They were standard fare at the 2006 Festival of Fruit at Cal Poly. The festival was sponsored by the Central Coast Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers, the world’s largest association of amateur fruit growers, and co-hosted by the College of Agriculture. The guest of honor was California Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura. Following a morning tour of the Crops Unit and Community Orchard on campus, Secretary Kawamura delivered the keynote address at the opening session in Chumash Auditorium.
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Check Out Campus Construction Project with CM Webcams
Construction is underway on the Construction Management Department's new building. The College of Architecture and Environmental Design has set up two webcams to track the action as the process continues. Get a close up look in real time -- anytime -- as the project unfolds, with full control of camera motion and zoom.
Click Here to pull up Webcam 1 | Click Here to pull up Webcam 2
Good Day Sunshine: Campus Going Solar
The first set of solar energy panels was installed on campus Sept. 6. The two panels are expected to generate enough electricity throughout the year to power 25 homes. The project is a partnership between Cal Poly, the CSU system, and Sun Edison.
Read More
Read the KSBY Story
November Elections: Proposition 1-D and Cal Poly
The upcoming November 7 ballot will include Proposition 1-D, a measure that allows the state to sell general obligation bonds for K-12 schools and higher education. The measure includes $3.1 billion to California's higher education systems to construct new buildings and related infrastructure, alter existing buildings, and purchase equipment for the buildings. The proposition includes $16.7 million for Cal Poly. Proposition 1-D funding will allow Cal Poly to provide state-of-the-art facilities to educate future engineers, scientists, architects and technicians to solve the challenges of the 21st century, as well as help meet California 's workforce needs.
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Visit the California Secretary of State Voter Information Guide Web Site
Today's
Students
Cal Poly Planning Journal Wins State Award
Cal Poly's City and Regional Planning Department will receive an Outstanding Journalism Award for their journal “Focus” at the Annual State Conference of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association in Garden Grove, Calif. on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Professor, journal founder and managing editor Vicente del Rio entered “Focus” in the 2006 CCAPA awards competition after it was recognized with an Award of Excellence in the educational project category by the Central Coast Chapter of the CCAPA. The magazine won for its mission to contribute to the planning field by sharing and fostering work by students, faculty and professionals.
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Faculty
& Staff
Professor to be Afghan Ambassador to Germany
Cal Poly Social Sciences Professor Maliha Zulfacar, a native of Afghanistan who has been active in the rebuilding of that country since 2001, has been appointed as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Germany. Zulfacar will serve her term as ambassador while on sabbatical from her teaching and studies at Cal Poly. She is the first woman to be appointed as an ambassador from the nation of Afghanistan. She departed for Afghanistan, and then Berlin, Sept. 1. “It is a great honor for me,” Zulfacar said. “With that honor comes much responsibility. Having been the first woman appointed as an ambassador from Afghanistan gives me the opportunity to serve my country of birth and also to demonstrate that when Afghan women are given the chance for education, they too will be able to participate effectively in the reconstruction of the country.”
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Read the SLO Tribune Story
Crop Science Professor Designs for
John Henry Professional Floral Journal
The John Henry Company, an internationally known floral design publication, has selected Cal Poly floral design instructor Melinda Lynch to design the wedding section in its next edition. The regularly published John Henry album comes with a work book, allowing florists and floral designers to learn how to make what is in each picture. The album is intended as a professional guidebook for florists and floral companies and its circulation is worldwide. Lynch teaches the floral practices classes in Cal Poly’s Horticulture and Crop Science Department. She also coaches the College of Agriculture’s top-ranked National Floral Design Team, and coaches its National Flower Judging Team for the floral design category in its judging competition.
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Read the Pacific Coast Business Times Story
Redwood Planted in Memory of Former Athletic Director's Son
A Coastal Redwood tree was planted in an August ceremony to celebrate the life of Justin McCutcheon, the 19-year-old San Luis Obispo High School graduate and former Cal Poly student and golfer who died Wednesday Aug. 9 in an auto accident in Massachusetts. Justin McCutcheon was the son of former Cal Poly Athletics Director John McCutcheon. A scholarship fund is also established in the younger McCutcheon’s name. Checks can be made payable to "SLOHS Justin McCutcheon Scholarship Fund" and sent to San Luis Obispo High School, 1499 San Luis Drive.
Read the Tribune service notice
Coming
Up
Performing Arts Center Celebrates 10 Years
With 10 Events September 23-October 1
The Performing Arts Center will celebrate its 10 year anniversary with a festival that begins Saturday, Sept. 23 and continues through Sunday, Oct. 1. Over the course of the festival the Performing Arts Center will play host to 10 events that include major Broadway, dance, and music acts, as well as a youth matinee, comedy, and a gala black tie dinner. Guest artists include Betty Buckley, Bo Diddley, and Savion Glover.
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Cal Poly Organic Farm
Opening 7th Annual Produce Program
It's time once again for the Cal Poly Organic Farm's Fall & Winter Community Supported Agriculture Program Season to begin. The 26-week season runs September 18 through March 12, offering a mouthwatering weekly selection of farm fresh organic vegetables, fruits and eggs to subscribers. True veggie fans can sign up for a weekly full share harvest box that feeds four to five people for $650, or a weekly half-share harvest box that feeds two to three people for $468.
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Calling All Alumni Twirlers - Swing Your Partner Nov. 12
The Cal Poly Twirlers club square-danced through the '60s, '70s, and even the end of the '80s, performing at Poly Royal annually and drawing 50 to 100 members to club dances. If you were a Poly Twirler in the 1970s or 80s, alumni Twirlers are looking for you. Former Twirlers are cordially invited to a reunion dance Sunday November 12, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in San Luis Obispo, at the hall at Zion Lutheran Church, 1010 Foothill (corner of Santa Rosa and Foothill). Veteran caller Don Benson, the Twirlers' caller throughout the 70s and 80s, will again be calling the steps. All former Twirlers are invited. For details call (805) 544-7402 or (805) 541-2386 or e-mail Twirlers Cathy Jacobs and LeRoy Homer at c.homer@verizon.net.
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